This page features a video of an old one-lane dirt road that runs along a ridge in southern Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The road is located in Larimer Township and Callimont Borough. (Callimont was formed from a portion of Larimer Township.) The current name of the road is the "Gameland Road," but the road existed long before the gameland it now runs through was created. I know the road because it passes through what had been my aunt & uncle's dairy farm back when I was a kid.
This road, although rough, is far better than the road my maternal grandparents lived along back in the 1950s, because this road isn't rocky. As you watch the video, keep an eye out for "breakers," which are shallow ditches cut across the steeper parts of the road. The breakers catch and divert water flowing down the road in wet weather. Their purpose is to reduce erosion.
The earliest map I have seen that illustrates the road is the May 1, 1915 "Map of the Public Roads in Somerset County, Pennsylvania". The road also appears on this 1923 1:48,000 topographical map and this 1923 1:62,500 topographical map. (On these 1923 maps, White Oak Hollow Road is still illustrated as being a trail.) If you can find the road on an earlier map, please let me know.
The video is also available on YouTube; click here.
L. Dietle
